


blame it on the girls who know what to do

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: this could be good (love is patient, love is kind) [30]
Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Mystic Force, Power Rangers S.P.D.
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, BAMF Women, Bigotry & Prejudice, Bisexual Female Character, Cameos, Children of Power Rangers, Daughters, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Canon, Trans Female Character, VIDA CHIP & XANDER GET TO MEET B-SQUAD, Women Being Awesome, Women In Power, Yellow Rangers, about these children, also Udonna and Leanbow are Chip's parents, and it is glorious, but I do, not important but is a thing here, not sure if anyone else still cares about this series, so here's another
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 12:59:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17643302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: There are a number of reasons why Dani Rocca joins S.P.D. They begin with her parents, Rangers themselves, ages and ages ago, and end with the feeling of Earth under her fingertips and the desire to make things better.The reasons spiral from the fact that she has never felt right in her own skin, that she had to go to the most skilled Healer in the forest and beg for them to right the wrong body parts so that the outside of her body would match the way she feels on the inside.-Dani grew up in two different worlds- the magical and the mundane, the Enchanted Forest and Briarwood. She grew up with a Dad who carried the weight of two names and a life of scars, a Pa who knew things about S.P.D. before it was even formed, and a Mom whose eyes still sometimes glow when the moon comes out. She grew up with magic in her blood and hip-hop music in her ears, cellphone in her pocket and wand in her boot.She knows the power that can come from two worlds combining, from marrying the human and the supernatural, from compromise and communication. Figuring out how to insert herself into a new team, a new world, is nothing new.





	blame it on the girls who know what to do

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Blame It On The Girls" by MIKA.
> 
> If anyone's interested, I've fancasted Dani Rocca as Lauren Lopez.
> 
> Only fandoms necessary to understand the story are S.P.D. and Mystic Force.
> 
> Also, this fic has a major cameo by Jack Landors with a characterization heavily based within another fic in this series, "thursday's child has far to go." It's not a major deviation from canon, and one that can be understood without reading the fic, but the fic contains a lot more of a fleshed-out characterization than this fic will provide so if anyone's interested, it will be provided there.

_Momma, Momma, let me tell you how I burn, how I revel in it, red-eyed and feral, how flames flicker across my teeth._

_Let me tell you how I set every goddamn fire myself, how it is hell and heaven, agony and ecstasy devouring themselves inside of me, how I scream the prayers you taught me until my throat rips itself into a bloody, shredded thing._

_Momma, let me tell you how I became relentless._

_Momma, let me tell you how I became the light._

**_\- Emily Palermo_ , Fire Prayer**

 

 

There are a number of reasons why Dani Rocca joins S.P.D. They begin with her parents, Rangers themselves, ages and ages ago, and end with the feeling of Earth under her fingertips and the desire to make things better.

The reasons spiral from the fact that she has never felt right in her own skin, that she had to go to the most skilled Healer in the forest and beg for them to right the wrong body parts so that the outside of her body would match the way she feels on the inside.

-

Dani joins S.P.D., beginning in D-Squad like every Cadet does. Most of the cadets in her Squad don't quite appreciate her...talents, if that's how she chooses to phrase it. She doesn't have mutant abilities, but to most of the general population that didn't grow up in the town she did, magic appears to be just as unnatural.

Well, she's used to proving people wrong, whether that be with her magic or her gender or her drive to defend a city hours away from the town she grew up in.

Cadets Morrison and Kelly learn to shut their mouths about the Mage of Briarwood pretty quickly when a training session ends with them getting attached to the ground with roots.

When she's brought in to the Command Center for reprimand, she can't fake guilt. That was her father and her heritage being mocked, and she won't stand for such a thing. 

She looks Commander Cruger straight in the eye and says, "Punish me all you want. What those cadets said was unfair and unjust. Anyone who has studied anything involving magic knows it not to be unnatural, but rather to be an ordinary part of the cycle of life. Calling it unnatural is both factually incorrect and a sign of bigoted ignorance."

The Red Ranger- and everyone in the base, practically everyone in the city, knows his face and name as Jack Landors- stares at her. She meets his gaze, thinking about her Uncle Nick and how he carries that same fire in his eyes, about her Ma and how she never backs down from any challenge.

"You're from Briarwood, aren't you?" He asks.

"Yes, sir," She answers, and he nods.

"You wouldn't have happened to have met any of the Mystic Force Rangers?"

She nearly snorts. Meet the Mystic Force Rangers? Her dads and her Ma were Rangers, as were her Aunt and Uncle. Even her Grandmother was the White Mystic Force Ranger.

"They're well known in town, yes," she says, which is not technically a lie. "And everyone in my town knows that without their magic, my generation wouldn't even exist. Everyone in Briarwood owes their continued existence to magic, and anyone from Briarwood would have acted the same as me."

The Red Ranger's face twitches, his lips nearly curving into a smile, and she nearly raises an eyebrow. She wonders what exactly he's thinking- whether he approves of what she's saying, or if he just finds her amusing.

Commander Cruger makes a sound that is probably best equated to a sigh, not dissimilar to her Pa's. "But not every kid from Briarwood would have had the magic to back it up," he mutters, and Dani can practically see her mother's smirk and her Pa's encouragement over her choice of earth magic.

Then Commander focuses back on her, and her back straightens even further. "Cadet Rocca, your punishment will be to be reassigned to cleaning duty after dinner every day this week instead of your normal rotation on the breakfast staff."

She nearly raises an eyebrow- that's an almost absurdly small punishment for assaulting another cadet- but instead she bites her tongue and nods. She knows that if she protests she's only going to get a harsher punishment. 

Commander Cruger nods. "You're dismissed, Cadet."

"Yes, sir." She salutes the Commander and the Red Ranger and then turns and leaves.

-

Dani gets promoted to B-Squad's Yellow Ranger when the Red Ranger quits S.P.D., and she sometimes finds it hard to fit in in a team comprised of four people who are soulmates. She knows that the old Red, Jack (who resigned right before she joined, leading everyone else to get promoted to new colors except, for some reason, the Pink Ranger, who decided to stay with the color she has, thus necessitating a change in the number designations for colors) is also their Soulmate. It's hard to fit in when the old team, despite their flaws, were legendary for how they worked together.

Dani is not a mutant. She's a warlock, third of her line, the granddaughter of Leanbow and Udonna and the daughter of three Power Rangers. She knows she's strong and well-trained. The real question, though, is whether she’s accepted.

(Dani knows what it’s like not to be accepted, to have to go through life having people question who you are. She knows all too well being looked down on for the ways you were born wrong, the parts of yourself that you have to fight with because you know who you are but the rest of the world doesn't. She understands having to find the right clothing, the right magic, the right answers for who she is.)

She works to prove herself as a good team member for S.P.D., to show that she can work in a team that has tailored itself around their Soulmate connection for the past two years. And of course there are times where it feels like she's trying to force an giantess into a goblin-shaped hole, but she's determined not to give up. She knows the stories about what her parents did for Briarwood, and she wants to do something similiar for the world.

So slowly enough, she figures things out. She figures out how to fight side-by-side with Z and Syd, how to use her sharp thinking and analytical skills to compliment Bridge's more abstract thought processes, and how to have her voice heard and respected by Sky Tate.

Dani grew up in two different worlds- the magical and the mundane, the Enchanted Forest and Briarwood. She grew up with a Dad who carried the weight of two names and a life of scars, a Pa who knew things about S.P.D. before it was even formed, and a Mom whose eyes still sometimes glow when the moon comes out. She grew up with magic in her blood and hip-hop music in her ears, cellphone in her pocket and wand in her boot.

She knows the power that can come from two worlds combining, from marrying the human and the supernatural, from compromise and communication. Figuring out how to insert herself into a new team, a new world, is nothing new. 

-

One day, Dani encounters Commander Cruger outside of debriefing. "If you don't mind me asking, why did you choose me for B-Squad, sir?"

"Because, Cadet, you have a strong sense of right and wrong, beneficial powers, and a knack for honesty."

Well, never let anyone say that Commander Cruger isn't blunt. "Thank you, sir," Dani replies, giving the Commander a nod. Then she begins to head off to her quarters- no need to spend any more time than needed with the Commander. She knows herself well- she's never done too well with authority figures and her mouth is likely to get her in trouble.

But no such luck.

"And Cadet?" Commander asks, and she turns around, snapping to attention.

"Yes, sir?"

"If I'm completely honest, Rocca, you remind me of Cadet Landors."

Not the first time she's been told that she reminds someone of a Red- her Grandma Udonna says that all the time. Nonetheless, she nods and smiles. "Thank you." 

-

" _M_ _ija,_ I hear you're the Yellow Ranger," Dad says one week when she calls home. 

She grins. "Like father, like daughter."

"To be honest, your Mom thinks you'd do best as a Red."

Dani shrugs as she spins around in her desk chair. She may be twenty-one, but she still enjoys certain "childish" activities. Spinning in a chair is definitely one of them.

(To be honest, she doesn't exactly have a good role model when it came to consistently acting her age. Her Dad's forty three, the Mage of Briarwood and practically a prince of the Magical Realm, but at times he's just as childish as she is, wearing vintage Harry Potter hoodies and babbling about the newest Marvel movies like a teenager.)

"Grandma Udonna's said the same thing since I was a kid, Dad."

"Well, your Grandma's been the voice of reason since I was a Ranger, kiddo." 

"That's not very surprising," Dani says, thinking about her Grandma and how, even to this day, she's still one of the most important leaders of the Enchanted Realm, probably only second to Dani's Dad.

"Your grandma would probably appreciate that," Dad says, "You should probably call her." 

-

She has scars of her own, running back two decades, mental and physical in nature. She has lived her share of good and bad memories, learned the things she hates about her body and the parts that have never felt like her own.

Her Soulmarks are the only thing about her body that she's always felt natural carrying about.

Dani's Soulmates are Trevor Brooks-Watanabe, the son of the ninja and a samurai, and Lila Parker, the daughter of a plumber. Trevor's fathers are Rangers and he grew up in a Ninja Academy; Lila's from a small town in Virginia, and she carries no legacy to her name.

When she came out as "Dani" rather than "Peter" at age ten, they didn't scorn her like so many in her town did. No- they just accepted her and every mismatched part of her body and Soul.

(She'll never tell anyone, but the day she saw "Dani"- her  _real_  name- appear in black and blue ink on her skin for the first time was the first day she felt completely right in this world.)

By the time Dani becomes the Yellow Ranger, she is head-over-heels for both of her Soulmates, despite the fact that she hasn't physically met either yet. 

-

When Sky gets promoted to Commander and everyone shifts up in the ranks, Dani finds herself in the position of the Green Ranger. She's no longer the newbie- now that's Vasko, who was Z's temporary replacement a couple of years ago when she was on maternity leave.

She feels at home in the team. Despite them being each others' Soulmates, she is their friend. She knows their thought patterns, the ways they fight and make up, their strengths and weaknesses. She knows that on bad days, Bridge's hands will find Syd's or Z's in the field or even Commander Tate's in the command room once the case is over. She knows that Syd can just as easily become a blade as a comforting hand. She knows that Z has a tendency to take cases the hardest, to personally invest herself more than any other member of B-Squad.

She knows that the end of the day will always find those three teammates in the Commander Center with Commander Tate. There, Sky will always have a few moments to give to his Soulmates. If Bridge is overwhelmed by the city's energy, Z wants a kiss, or Syd's tongue has become a bit too sharp, Sky is there to comfort them.

And she knows, of course, that they love each other more than anything else.

Though they're incredibly domestic, with Jack sometimes dropping by during the day with baby Eve to surprise them, they sometimes love with a love far more desperate and close than most she's seen. Dani's not sure if it's a Ranger thing, with the Power augmenting their bond, or if it's a product of bad childhoods. After all, her parents are sometimes the same way, but Dani knows about how shitty her Dad's childhood was. It could be any number of connections that causes a love where you're constantly touching, looking for each other, and bordering on codependent.

But Dani's happy for them. They're happy together, and that's all she wants for her team.

-

"I hear you ditched your Dad's colors for your Pa's. Good decision,  _mija_ ," Pa greets her on their weekly video call, and Dani rolls her eyes.

"I got promoted, Pa, it's not like it was a choice what color I got."

"You skipped your mother's," Pa points out, almost smugly.

"Syd has a stranglehold on the Pink. I'm pretty sure that if the promotions continue, she'll occupy leader of the team without switching into the Red."

"Jen's probably going to celebrate that another Pink is in command. And you know that she needs such joy in her old age."

Dani raises an eyebrow. "Ms. Scotts is only fifty five years old, Pa- only seven years older than you. Wait until I get to start calling you old."

"You only get to start calling me old when I become a grandpa like Grandpa Leanbow or Grandpa Rocca," Pa says, and then waggles a threatening finger at her. "And you better not be making me a grandpa any time soon."

"I haven't met either of my Soulmates yet, Pa," Dani says, looking down at the green and black ink on her skin. "Trust me on that."

"Oh, I trust you," Pa says, "Because I know that you'd tell me as soon as you meet them."

Well, he does have a point. If there are a certain group of people in Dani's life that she is completely willing to trust, it's her family. She'd call her parents and Grandma Udonna and Grandpa Leanbow (and Aunt Madison and Uncle Nick, for good measure) the moment anything happens with her Soulmates. 

-

The weekend after Bridge returns back from his mission to the past, Dani heads home to Briarwood with one mission in mind: to interrogate her Pa because she knows Nick was off in another country in 2007 and Dani's Dad was in the middle of becoming the Mage of Briarwood so that means Pa  _must_ have been the male Mystic Force Ranger Bridge encountered there.

"Hey, sweetie," her Pa starts, still trying to pull off that Kiwi charm at age forty seven. "How was work over the past few weeks?"

"Don't 'hey sweetie' me, Pa," Dani says, "You were one of the Rangers who helped with Operation Overdrive, weren't you? You met Bridge back in 2007."

Her Pa's jaw levers open and shut like a broken puppet's. "Maybe," he says, but it does  _not_ sound very convincing.

She rolls her eyes. "You should say hi to him- Bridge would love to talk to any of the Rangers who helped him out back in the day. I can give you his e-comm digits if you want 'em."

Her Pa grins. "I'd love to catch up with an old friend."

-

When Dani invites over all of the Carson-Delgado-Drew-Landors-Tate family for dinner the next week, she very casually mentions that her parents will be visiting too, and that she'd love for her co-workers to get to meet them. 

"You sure you want all of us?" Syd asks, "Including Jack and Eve?"

Dani nods. "Of course. I may not know him as well as I know you all, but he's your Soulmate and Eve's your daughter and it wouldn't be right not to invite them." Dani gives Syd a smile. "Besides, I think that they'll really enjoy meeting any former Rangers. They're really good friends with the former Mystic Force Rangers." It's a bit of an understatement, to be sure, but Dani can't resist.

Syd smiles. "So they're proud of you joining S.P.D. and becoming the Green Ranger?"

Dani nearly laughs, only barely resisting. The calls from her parents after each promotion definitely spelled that out- she thinks that the only thing that her parents haven't been proud of is when she skips over or leaves their colored position on the team.

"They saw what the Mystic Force Rangers did to save Briarwood," Dani says, "And to be honest, I think they're waiting for the day they hear about my promotion to Red. I told them I'd have to wait for you to get it first, but then I'd grab it next."

Syd grins. "I can't wait to meet them. They lived through the Mystic Force Rangers- I'm sure they've got stories to tell."

"Plenty of 'em, don't worry," Dani says. She can't wait to see the S.P.D. Rangers' expressions when they meet her parents.

-

When Dani first welcomes the S.P.D. Rangers into the living room of her apartment, her Dad is the only one in the room. Her Pa and Mom are in the kitchen, cooking up the last of dinner.

"Here," Bridge says, offering Dani a piece of dishware covered in saran wrap, "Jack made one of my Uncle's recipes."

"Thanks, man," Dani says as her Dad looks up from setting the last plate on the table. Her Dad raises an eyebrow at the group of Rangers, probably trying to figure out which one was which color based on their clothes. Dani's met enough Rangers in her time in S.P.D. to know that.

Z and Syd are probably easy enough to determine- Z's wearing a mustard yellow blazer overtop of a white blouse and Syd a pink and black dress. But the boys?

Jack's in a low-key black leather jacket with a green polo underneath that she is nearly certain belonged to Bridge when they were all still in B-Squad together, Sky is wearing a red turtleneck, and Bridge is wearing a blue button-down with his usual black gloves. That's gonna be tons of fun for her Dad and Mom to try and work out, not having met any of them before- well, at least until Pa explains everything.

And of course, there is Eve, currently walking between Bridge and Sky. The little girl is a fucking adorable little four-year-old, wearing a blue and green dress over top of black leggings and sparkly white-and-silver high tops. Her hair's pulled back with a blue hairband. She looks just like her mother, the only difference between them the little girl's blue eyes.

"Nice to meet you all," Dad's says, "I'm one of Dani's fathers. Name's Bowen ap Leanbow."

Dani barely resists laughing at her Dad's use of his magical name and isn't able to restrain a shit-eating grin. He's really having fun playing up her Pa's entrance and delaying the moment that Dani's teammates realize just who her parents are. 

"I'm Bridge Carson," Bridge says, taking the lead just as easily as he does in the field. He reaches out a hand to shake her Dad's, and Dani sees the realization dawn on her Dad's face that this is the Ranger that fought alongside Pa just a week and twenty seven years ago. "Nice to meet you, sir."

"Always great to meet a Ranger," her Dad says with that 'Yellow Ranger' grin of his, and now Dani's having to actively muffle her laughter behind her shirt sleeve.

"And I'm Jack Landors," Jack says.

One by one each of the family introduces themselves to her Dad, ending with Sky who crouches down next to Eve and says, "Sweetie, mind introducing yourself to Mr. Leanbow?"

Dad doesn't correct Sky on the assumption that Leanbow is her dad's last name, and so neither does Dani. He just smiles as Eve says, "My name is Eve Delgado, sir."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Delgado," Dad says, crouching down to shake her hand. Eve's face lights up and she takes his hand and shakes it.

Then Pa exits the kitchen, pot of Grandpa Leanbow's  _liria_ noodles in hand, and Dani sees the exact moment Bridge recognizes him. Bridge's jaw drops and he says, "Xander Bly?"

"You haven't aged a day, Bridge," Pa says, reaching out to shake Bridge's hand.

Bridge grins at him. "How long has it been for you?"

"About twenty-four years," Pa says, and Dani knows that the two of them will well and occupied in conversation for the night.

"Your father's a Mystic Force Ranger," Sky says, staring at Dani.

"And so are my Mom and Dad," she says with a small shrug. "Yellow, Green, and Pink." Jack bursts into laughter and Dani grins at them both. "What, did I forget to mention that?" she asks, tone faux-innocent. "How silly of me."

"We have got to hang out more often," Jack says, awe in his tone, and she remembers Grandma Udonna's age old refrain:  _your magic may be earth, but you've got the spirit of a red ranger, Snowdrop._

"Call me up," she says with a smirk.

Z looks at Dad, her gaze narrowing. "You're Chip Thorn, aren't you, sir?"

Dad nods. "Got me on that one. Bowen's the name I go by in the Enchanted Forest- Chip's the one I grew up with, though." He doesn't go into the story behind it all, and Dani can't blame him. Their family's a bit of a mess, if a wonderful one.

Then Mom comes out. "You idiot left me on the phone trying to explain to Udonna how to use a hologram," Mom complains, "That woman's terrifying, but by god does she-" She halts talking when she sees the guests in the room. Immediately she grins. "Nice to meet you all," Mom says, reaching out a hand to Syd to shake, "You must be the Pink Ranger. Syd Drew, I presume?"

Syd grins at Dani's Mom, and for a moment Dani's genuinely terrified of what the two of them would do together. "And you're Vida Rocca, Mystic Force Pink?"

Mom nods. "Guilty as charged."

"So I just have one question for Dani," Syd says, "Why do your parents think you'll be Red if none of them were?"

Mom snorts. "Have you met  _mija_? She's a Red through and through."

Now, Dani's been having plenty of fun screwing with her teammates, but the  _liria_ noodles are calling her names, so...

"But now that that surprise is over with, who wants food?" Dani offers, and Jack grins.

"You're speaking my language."

-

Dani is twenty-six-years-old when she bumps into a dark-haired-man in glasses on one of her days off. She's in the City Park, sitting in a tree- an unfortunate habit she picked up from her Pa- when this man skates up to her tree and says, "Lovely day we're having."

She rolls her eyes and looks down from her perch. "What's up?"

The man has on a short-sleeved green button-down- not that different than the long-sleeved one she's wearing right now, to be honest- and he kind of looks familiar, like maybe she's seen his face somewhere before. She doesn't get too distracted by that for too long, though- instead, she looks at his arms, at the colors of ink staining his skin. He has his forearms bared to the world, as most tend to do when they're not Rangers with their identities well known to the public, and the colors are rather familiar-

Wait a moment. Green, blue, and black ink on his arm? That's got to be a coincidence, but-

"Hey, Dani," Trevor says, "It's been a long time. Practically forever."

"You can't flirt worth a damn," she says, but it's with a fond smile and plenty of love as she jumps down from her tree perch.

He shrugs, and it's with no grace but plenty of awkward attitude. "You know Lila's got all the talent in that area."

"How'd you find me?"

"You mention this park all the time, and I just  _happened_ to be passing through town for work so I decided to stop by and see if you were here."

"You teach at a secret Ninja Academy- what kind of work could you possibly be doing in New Tech City?"

"Meeting my Soulmate?" He asks, blinking innocently at her as he takes her hand, and Dani hates the fact that that's enough to make her blush.

"Well, it's nice to meet you in person," she says.

-

The year Dani turns twenty-seven there's another set of promotions that doesn't exactly proceed linearly, as Bridge resigns from his position in order to take a position with the Special Operations Division of S.P.D.- that is, the department that usually handles the more specialized detective and field work, such as time travel-related incidents.

Syd becomes leader of the Squad but keeps the Pink, Z keeps Blue and second-in-command, Vasko advances to Green, they promote Hartley Rathaway from A-Squad into the position of Yellow, and Dani?

Dani wears Red. She's not the leader of B-Squad, not yet, but she is finally wearing the color her Grandma has been waiting for her to wear. 

Her first day in the red uniform finds her in front of the mirror, pulling her hair carefully up into its usual french braid and smoothing out her uniform. She can do this- not only has she been a member of B-Squad for six years now, but being a Ranger's in her blood. Her Dad's a Yellow Ranger and the Prince of Briarwood, her Grandma built a team of Rangers from scratch and was the first Mystic Force Ranger, her Mama's a Pink Ranger who overcame being a vampire, her Pa's a Green Ranger and helped save the Operation Overdrive team when they lost their powers. Her Grandpa was a knight who sacrificed himself to save an entire world and who later became the Wolf Warrior, her aunt's a Blue Ranger and a water wizard, and her Uncle was a Red Ranger himself who overcame a mind control spell.

At the end of the day, she comes from a line of heroes who taught her, above all, the power of stubbornness and selflessness, of what makes a hero a hero. She may be a Red in spirit, but her family taught her the benefits of thinking like any colored Ranger, whether Yellow or Pink or Green or Blue or White. (No Black, admittedly, but a girl sometimes has to learn to deal.) 

"You'll do fantastically," Trevor says from his seat on the bed, and she smiles. Trevor doesn't really carry the nature of any particular color in him, but she'd probably label him a Pink if she had the option. Lila is, most likely, a Blue. Quite the color combination, if Dani does admit herself.

(In her time, Dani has gotten to know a few Ranger color combinations well. Her parents- Yellow, Pink, and Green; her Aunt and Uncle- Red and Blue; Her grandparents- Red and White; the original B-Squad- Red, Pink, Yellow, Blue, and Green; Trevor's parents- Yellow and Green; Trevor's Uncles- Red and Crimson; Trevor's Aunt and Uncle- Navy and Blue, and so on down the line.

There are so many color combinations, so many possibilities that work. She wonders what it would be like not to see the world through the lens of Rangerhood, to analyze what life is like without colors defining personalities and traditions.

Shit, she's internally rambling again.)

Trevor's been spending the night about once a week since they met, waiting for their respective leases to be up so that they can get a place somewhere in between their jobs.

"Thanks, babe," Dani says, leaning in to give him a kiss. Trevor grins.

"Now, let's go see you get promoted."

Dani smirks. "I'm totally up for that."

-

Syd gets pregnant and has to go on leave, which results in another bump in the rankings and the temporary handing of the position of leader to Dani.

"I don't want to be the team leader," Z says, "I'm perfectly happy as second-in-command. You'll do a good job as Number One, Dani."

Dani smirks. "I think I will, too."

-

Dani's first case goes pretty damn well, if she does say so herself. It only takes six hours to investigate the crime, track down the perp, and arrest them- not exactly a record, but not quite shabby, either.

When she gets back to the Command Center and delivers her report, Sky has a smirk on his lips after she finishes off her interview. "Good job on your first case as first-in-command, Cadet Rocca," he says, and she smirks right back.

"All in a day's work, Commander." 

She's not as gentle as Z and Hartley are, not as selfless as Syd. She's got stubbornness in her spine and a certain resentment in her heart. Except for her family and her Soulmates, she's not soft.

In other words, she's practically born to be a Red.

-

She calls her mom that night to tell her the news, and the first thing she hears is, "Told you so."

Dani barks out a laugh. " _Grandma_ told me that, Mom."

" _Mija_ , you know I've always been convinced that you'd make a fantastic Red and a great leader," Vida says. "It's in your blood."

That's debatable, Dani thinks but doesn't say out loud.

- 

There's a woman sitting on the sofa, talking to Trevor, when Dani arrives home from work a few nights later. She raises an eyebrow as she crosses the threshold- she can't remember inviting any guests over. Trevor has free rein of the apartment, of course, but no one else does.

"Trevor?" Dani asks, raising a tired eyebrow. "Who is this?"

The woman's wearing jeans and a rather nice orange blouse that contrasts with her dark skin and cornrows. "Nice to meet you," she says, smiling a Yellow smile as she offers out a hand. "Lila Parker."

Dani's jaw drops even as she steps forward and pulls Lila in a hug. "How did you two...?"

"One of the late nights you pulled a couple of weeks ago," Trevor says, "You know, when B-Squad had that case about the kidnapping of the daughter of the Jer'llian ambassador? You got home and collapsed almost face-first onto the bed? I talked to Lila then. We wanted to surprise you."

"Well, I'm definitely surprised," Dani says, but she can't help but smile at the two idiots she's fallen in love with. "Mind if I grab a drink before joining you guys on the sofa? I'm beat."

"Of course not," Trevor says with a smile.

-

There comes a point at which even S.P.D.'s powers aren't effective, when even a Ranger as seasoned and powerful as Z is incapacitated. Hartley's a genius with no powers so he's been knocked out as well, and Vasko's got the strength of any boxer from his planet but that doesn't do much against their current attackers, who hail from a planet that employs a mixture of telekinesis and sound wave manipulation. Sherri, the newb, has no mutant abilities and is completely useless as well.

And then there's Dani, and she may be a Red, may be the team leader, but she is a warlock first and foremost. She has powers just as Z and Syd do, as Bridge and Sky and even Jack Landors do.

She yanks her wand out of its holster next to her blaster, points it at the three advancing, and begins to chant. Vines stretch from the earth and shoot out at the three aliens, growing and growing until they've got them entirely wrapped up.

Using her wand is almost definitely a breach of protocol, but she doesn't care. She'll deal with the consequences, just as she dealt with them when she was only on C-Squad. What's necessary is necessary, and she'll damn the consequences if she has to.

Looks like she took after her parents quite a lot, but she didn't inherit any of their powers of self-restraint. 

-

After she reports the whole incident to Commander Sky, she ends up getting a talking-to that's rather similiar to the one that Commander Cruger gave her all those years ago, a lecture about self-control and breaking the rules and those kinds of fun things.

But then he smiles a little. "You've got a lot to learn, Cadet Rocca," Sky ends up finishing, "But I'm pretty sure you're going to make a fantastic Red."

"Thank you, sir," Dani says, giving him a salute, and he smiles more fully. She sees his Soulmates in him, in his bright eyes and bright smile. She's heard so much about how he originally was, before he was in a relationship, how strict he was with the rules.

She wonders if her Soulmates have toned down her stubbornness at all. Hopefully so. (Probably not.)

 

But Dani's pretty sure that no matter what's happened, she's doing pretty well for herself. She's the Red S.P.D. Ranger, fulfilling her lifelong goals, and she's fulfilling her family's legacies by protecting the world from harm by using both her thinking and her magical talents.

 

_Mama said_

_Fulfill the prophecy, be something greater_

_Go make a legacy, burn your biographies_

_Rewrite your history, light up your wildest dreams_

_Don't give up, it's a little complicated_

_Gotta have high, high hopes for a living_

_**-High Hopes,**_ **Panic! at the Disco**

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if I like the ending or not, but this has been sitting in my drafts for fucking AGES and I wanted to just get it out so that I could feel some sort of closure on both the S.P.D. and Mystic Force stories so here y'all go. Hope you liked it even if I'm not satisfied with the ending.


End file.
